


Distance

by leiascully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Relationship(s), Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 22:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5265443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The shortest distance between two people is a word.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distance

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: N/A  
> A/N: For the XF Writing Challenge "Distance" prompt.  
> Disclaimer: _The X-Files_ and all related characters are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox Studios. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

There are days she can't get far enough away from Mulder. She daydreams about driving to the airport and taking the first flight to anywhere, turning off her phone and leaving no forwarding address. Instead, she goes to Rock Creek Park to hike and remembers the cabin where she and Jack were snowbound. She isn't nostalgic for Jack so much as she misses the way the world swaddled the place in silence, in a sense of perfect solitude. She needs time to herself once in a while, a bubble that nothing and no one else can penetrate. But there's always Mulder, as close as a phonecall.

There are days they are miles away from each other, even in the confines of the latest rental car. When she glances over, there are galaxies whirling in his eyes. He picks up sunflower seeds with distracted, fumbling fingers and he stares out past the horizon. She too can see beyond the curve of the earth. The open road sprawls under them, carrying them away from themselves. Only the tenuous gravity of their partnership steadies them as they swing in their separate orbits, the universe between them.

There are days when she feels as if they are inside each other's minds, closer than skin would allow. The blood that rushes through her veins is his; her breath fills his lungs. Xeno's Paradox is a lie. There is no vast echoing space between the atoms of her and the atoms of him. They are made of the same stuff, stardust and stubbornness. 

There are days when not even the length of her body pressed against his, bare skin sharing heat, would be enough to satisfy her. She wants to crawl inside him and find shelter among his ribs. She wants him so deep in her that she can't feel where he ends and she begins. She wants his sweat on her skin and his tongue in her mouth. She wants light not to find a space between them to shine through. 

There are days when she cycles through all of it, ebb and flow. They maintain their cordial distance. His hand touches her back. She leans in until her hair brushes his lapel. They endure.


End file.
